The Twelve Days of Christmas Explained

City office of Grants Management

On the first day of Christmas, Horace Sibley sent to me a family living in a pear tree.  Many months ago Horace Sibley’s daughter, Eve, emailed me from across the sea saying that if I knew her father I would not write what I had written about him.  Had I had the opportunity to speak with Eve Sibley, I would say to her what I said to Debi Starnes at Manuel’s Tavern, “What I write is not personal; it’s spiritual.” 

 

Sibley, an attorney retired from King and Spaulding in Atlanta, served as the first chair of Mayor Shirley Franklin’s Commission on Homelessness.  That misnamed and misbegotten body has lived through many phases.  Under the cover of night, Franklin while Mayor slipped across the street from City Hall to the Georgia Legislature to get the vote to make her “commission” an authority.  She got the vote and immediately she got also a veto from Governor Sonny Dupree.  Franklin and Sibley wanted state money that could have come if their little creation could be made an authority.

 

During the early days of serving as chair of the mayor’s commission, Horace Sibley frequented the Peachtree Pine Community regularly, always with note pad in hand.  He brought Eve, an accomplished portrait artist to the Art Works Studio.  She painted in our studio the faces of many residents.  Horace told me once that he was a friend of Peachtree Pine, and we had his support.  He knew he was bearing false witness, and I thought of THE ODYSSEY.  In addition to bullying frightened homeless women, he is Horace “Sinon” Sibley.

 

He took his twisted version of what he had learned at Peachtree Pine to the Outreach Committee at St. Philips Cathedral (Episcopal) and that body of believers cut funding to Peachtree Pine ($30,000 annually).  He took his notes to TEAM GOLIATH and Debi Starnes.  His fellow conspirators like A.J. Robinson and Tennco’s Brad Curry and  Emory Health Care’s Al Blackwelder and an entire entourage of movers and shakers drove  in a Central Atlanta Progress van to visit Dan Cathy at the Chic-fil-a headquarters.  Soon, miraculously, all Cathy money stopped.  Chic-fil-a’s moo cow band was seen no more at Peachtree Pine.  The training of new employees coming to the shelter ended.  Dan Cathy’s sleeping over at The Pine was history.

 As chair of the mayor’s commission, Sibley was operating as an agent of the City of Atlanta.  That’s called Tortious Interference.  Georgia State University School of Law gave an annual award to Sibley as the lawyer in Atlanta who did most for homeless people.  For his stopping money going to The Pine, he was deposed for six hours by Steve Hall, Baker Donelson attorney representing the Task Force.  Sister Jane Garety, a nun who works for the Denver based Mercy Housing, Inc., wrote an email to Horace saying that the City of Atlanta will be indebted to Mercy Housing, Inc. for its part in helping Emanuel Fialkow foreclose on the Peachtree Pine building.  How do you like them apples?  A Roman Catholic Nun-Run organization, whose mission is to help nonprofit organizations avoid foreclosure, winds up in bed with the likes of A. J. Robinson, Manny Fialkow and Horace Sibley.

Is it any wonder Horace Sibley’s name surfaces at the mention of TEAM GOLIATH, that hideous strength.  On the first day of Christmas, Horace Sibley sent to me a family living in a pear tree.  I wonder if that family would be labeled by Horace “chronically Homeless” or just the regular run of the mill homeless.

 

On the second day of Christmas, Mayor Kasim Reed sent to me two Innovation Delivery Team members.  NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg in the summer of 2011awarded $1.4 million for each of three years to five cities.  Atlanta is one of the five.   The money was allocated to address homelessness in Atlanta.  Reed created his Innovation Delivery Team to address two specific areas:  panhandling and customer service in Atlanta City Hall.  This improved service was to be delivered primarily to the business community.  While both areas badly need attention, the homeless mother with an infant may have more pressing needs on a cold January night than panhandling and customer service in City Hall. 

 

Superstar Kristin “Lexis-Nexis” Wilson according to the mayor handled millions of dollars and will be assisting the “chronically homeless.”  One the second day of Christmas, Mayor Reed sent to me two members of the $1.4 million Innovation Delivery Team.

 

On the third day of Christmas, Debi “homeless czar” Starnes sent to me, three bogus letters signed Greg Pridgeon.  During the Czar’s tenure of serving homeless people, She wrote three letters signed by Greg Pridgeon.  These letters were written to the state blocking all public funding to the people at Peachtree Pine.  Since the signing of these letters, no public money, city, county, state or federal has gone to support the people at Peachtree Pine.  The City’s Office of Grants Management approved funding all three years but Starnes and Franklin overrode that decision.  Greg Pridgeon, I understand, is today the manager of Rockdale County.  On the third day of Christmas, Debi Starnes sent to me, three bogus letters signed Greg Pridgeon.

 

On the fourth day of Christmas, Rector Hoare sent to me four fingers shooting the bird.  On Super Bowl Sunday 2010, Rector Hoare from his high pulpit at the Varsity Grill Episcopal Church blasted Peachtree Pine as a squalor, a place unfit for human habitation.  CEO Rector Hoare stands with the business community, coached by Central Atlanta Progress, damning the occupants and management of the Peachtree Pine Community.  I know that when government and business crawl in bed together the result is a form of fascism.  What’s it called when the church crawls under the covers with government and business.  I’ll ask Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  On the fourth day of Christmas Rector Hoare sent to me four fingers shooting the bird.

 

On the fifth day of Christmas, Emanuel “God with us” Fialkow’s lawyer sent to me five golden necklaces.  At one of the many hearings in the Superior Court of Fulton County, a dozen or so TEAM GOLIATH lawyers huddled.  One of these worthies representing Fialkow was bedecked in gold necklaces.  His wavy locks flowed down his back while his gold chains dangled down his front.  My mind took me to the New Testament, Acts 3:6 where Peter exclaims, “Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I thee.”  TEAM GOLIATH boasts quite a roster with gold loving Hoare in his Episcopal pulpit and gold wearing barristers in the courtroom.  That’s a winner every time in our time.  On the fifth day of Christmas, Fialkow’s lawyer sent to me five golden necklaces.

 

On the sixth day of Christmas, Dave“Great news!” Wardell of Central Atlanta Progress fame and fortune sent to me six vats of Kool Ade.  On one of the three times that the City of Atlanta turned off the water at The Pine shelter, the head guy at Georgia State University Security read all about it in Atlanta’s only morning paper.  The security fellow was beside himself with glee, so he blackberried his pal David Wardell at CAP.  Wardell, in a meeting, blackberried back, “Great news!”  I wrote an entire blog citing how Wardell got his middle name.  What I was not able to ascertain was how Wardell became such a sensitive person.  Rather than letting them eat cake, let them drink Kool Ade, compliments of caring CAP.  In an earlier blog, the Kool Ade came from Mayor Franklin, Debi Starnes and dear Bruce Gunter.  Gunter recalling the Jim Jones massacre, said, “Debi, could I take a gallon to Anita Beaty?”  On the sixth day of Christmas, Dave“Great news!” Wardell sent to me six vats of Kool Ade.

 

On the seventh day of Christmas, A. J. ”We’re all kind of mystified” Robinson sent to me seven worms a squirming.  Robinson is the head honcho at the heartbeat of Atlanta, Central Atlanta Progress. He is the primary mover, along with the merciful nuns, in Manny “Do I smell a fault?” Fialkow scheme to swindle The Pine property.  His middle name comes from his quote in the morning paper when he learned of Debi Starnes’ yarn of a lice infestation at The Pine shelter.  Why dear A. J. exclaimed, “We are all kind of mystified.”  We were neve surer what mystified his mind; however, we never doubted it.  Was he mystified by the enormity of the Starnes fabrication or by the presence of a louse on his person.  The seven  worms a squirming symbolize the current trepidation of some of the good ole boys who have served so well TEAM GOLIATH, that hideous strength.  On the seventh day of Christmas, A. J. Robinson sent to me seven worms a squirming.

 

On the eight day of Christmas, Vince “Of model Gateway Shelter” Smith sent to me eight maids all nursing.  Under oath in three separate depositions, CAP”S Richard Orr and A. J. Robinson and the City’s Debi Starnes and Horace Sibley stated that The Gateway Shelter is a model and will be an arm in ending homelessness in Atlanta.  From time to time staff members at The Gateway send homeless women with their children, usually on foot, across town to The Pine.  Sometimes these women with their children have been refused entrance for any number of reasons.  Members of my staff have been told by The Gateway people that Peachtree Pine is no longer in operation.  One time we called and a woman working the telephone said she did not have a telephone number for Peachtree Pine.  So much for the Starnes/Sibley model shelter.  On the eight day of Christmas, Vince Smith sent to me, eight maids all nursing.

 

On the ninth day of Christmas, Protip “lights the way at United Way” Biswas sent to me nine mothers weeping.  The mayor’s commission on homelessness has metamorphosed from a potential state authority into a limp member now labeled United Way’s Regional Commission on Homelessness.  It does what the HAG (Starnes’ Homeless Action Group) does.  It does what Woody Bartlett’s HAP (Home Action Plan) did for a brief shining moment.  It does what Alan Harris’s group does.  They all do the same thing.  They all meet.  They meet. They meet.  They meet.  Protip is now the executive director of United Way’s Regional Commission on Homelessness.  I have no idea what “region” they encompass.  Early morning no long ago I encountered a mother with two children sitting on steps inside our building.  She was crying with her children sitting quietly beside her.  Someone at the Edgewood Ave offices of Atlanta United Way told her directions to Peachtree Pine.  This poor woman thought she might get help at United Way.  On the ninth day of Christmas, Protip Biswas sent to me nine mothers weeping.  Again, I have to ask Protip and his fellow experts, are these three people “chronically homeless,” or are they just your ordinary run of the mill homeless citizens of Atlant?  And which group are we serving this year?  Is 311 the way I reach Lexis-Nexis?

 

On the tenth day of Christmas, Jack Hardin sent to me ten Lords a quaking.  Lords quake and worms squirm whenever exposed to the light.  TEAM GOLIATH  boasts in its membership both Lords and worms and some of them are one and the same.  Three lawsuits are currently on appeal and all three involve movers and shakers, worms and quakers.  On the tenth day of Christmas, Jack Hardin sent to me ten Lords a quaking.

 

On the eleventh day of Christmas, Ratchet Rob “Happy to turn off your water” Hunter sent to me eleven huge rain barrels.  The garden atop the many thousand square foot roof contains thirty beds of vegetables.  Two rain barrels help water the hundreds of plants.  On command from Debi Starnes, Ratchet Rob three times turned off the water used for cooking, bathing, flushing and drinking.  Ratchet Rob Hunter lost his job as Commissioner of the Department of Water Mismanagement at the City of Atlanta.  Word has it that he turned off the water of one too many Buckhead Betty.  On the eleventh day of Christmas, Ratchet Rob Hunter sent to me eleven rain barrels.

 

On the twelfth day of Christmas, Renee Glover sent to me twelve leveled housing communities.  Renee Glover heads the Atlanta Housing Authority, and she lounges in the fact that she is one of the darlings of Washington HUD.  Although she’s been scorched around Atlanta for a few little money improprieties, she’s evidently safe in the arms of Jesus.  I don’t know how a few million dollars in the wrong place here and there could cause a problem, surely not in Atlanta.  The United State’s public housing policy for the last 25 years is perfectly mirrored in Atlanta, in the Atlanta Housing Authority.  Since 2005 in Atlanta, 3200 units of public housing have been demolished, leveled, removed, disappeared.  In those units 9,600 men, women and children have been displaced and not placed anywhere.  The federal government’s policy on housing the poorest of the poor is to actively disappear them.  How do I know this?  I know it through my staff members who speak with some of these victims every day.  Atlanta Housing Authority has disappeared the poorest of its poor residents.

 

Demolishing run-down, drug-infested, rat infested units of housing and replacing them with safe sanitary living quarters is commendable.  Displacing 9,600 people from 3,200 units of housing with no intention of rebuilding them is detestable.  The City of Atlanta gets up early and stays up late working on disappearing low-incoming housing and no-income housing.  Disappear both out of sight.  (Micah 2:1-2:TEAM GOLIATH’S favorite Hebrew Bible passage).  These two example of disappearing the poor from our streets and the poor from their houses exposes to full light where we are as a City and where we are as a nation in addressing the least of these among us.     

 

My pieces NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS and AN EXPLANATION OF THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS touch many of the people within the hideous strength that I have named TEAM GOLIATH; however, I have not scratched the surface of suffering humanity my staff deals with 24 hours a day.  And those suffering ones are the very ones that the TEAM GOLIATHS crush beneath their boots every day.  It does not have to be this way.  Atlanta does not have to be this way.  City Council does not have to be a nest of simpering pawns.  City Hall does not have to be a den of corrupt climbers, 1.4 million dollars for salaries and customer service while babies and children are languishing before our very eyes.

 

The last verse of the fourth gospel come to mind; John21:25 says, “And there are many other things that Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.  Let me borrow from John’s metaphor.  Let us stop piling atrocities upon atrocities that are filling more than all the books of the world, and let us begin doing for each other what the Galilean told us to do.

 

James Wilson Beaty

Jeremiah 22:16

January 8, 2013  

Sorry, Debi; Sorry, CAP, Sorry, Rhonda "The whole truth" Cook; Sorry, Dave "Great news" Wardell and Sorry, Ratchet Rob "I'll turn your water off" Hunter

The names listed above are members of the Franklin/Starnes, CAP Goliath Team committed to the extermination of the Task Force for the Homeless. They will have to wait a little longer for homeless people to be without water at the Peachtree-Pine shelter. The next payment of $5,338.90 is due on July 25. By nothing short of a miracle, the $8,400 due on July 16 was paid. A minister wrote a personal check of $1000. A business person sent $2000. A committed young woman raised $2500 from her Buckhead neighbors. A prominant church through the diligence of its senior minister electronically mailed $5000 to the city’s Department of Water Mismanagement. An additional $1000 came through the Task Force’s PayPal. Incidentally, four donors were Task Force staff who have not been paid for the last three months.

The first time the city turned off the water at Peachtree-Pine was the first week of December 2008, Christmas season. Central Atlanta Progress’s David E. Wardell upon hearing that the water had been cut off, exclaimed, “Great news!” Wardell sets the tone for Team Goliath. To a person the team members are giddy knowing 550 homeless people have no water to drink. CAP contradicts itself in its philosophy of panhandling when it gives us permission to give a bottle of water, never money, of course. Sadness, yea moans, rippled through city hall when word came that the water would NOT be turned off on July 16. The bankrupt city needs every dollar it can steal; however, more than stealing its greatest thrill for Team Goliath is witholding water from thirsty homeless people. These leaders fulfill Isaiah 32.6, “For the fool speaks folly…the hungry he leaves empty and from the thirsty he withholds water.” Why Bonnie Ware, the memo writer was seen to wipe a tear as she groaned, “And those nasty people will use our water to flush; it’s just outrageous.”

Recent developments reveal Shirley Franklin and Debi Starnes to be pawns on CAP’s chess board. They are the cupbearers of Central Atlanta Progress who in turn obey the good ole boy power structure that has ruled Georgia and Atlanta since Sherman did his thing. The chilling truth that the sickness of the Franklin/Starnes yoke (and they are sick) when gone will be replaced by other cupbearers. A sweet irony: the Task Force has gumpteen deep throats in the bowels of City Hall. Oodles of city workers even right there under Rachet Rob’s nose deplore the actions of their own department, the Department of Water Mismanagement. Words of encouragement like “We’re pulling for you.” come regularly from city workers.

The word “cupbearer” brings to mind a scene in literature that clarifies the city’s oppressing the poor. Mark Twain depicted Elizabeth I’s court in a piece he called, “1601.” This satirical piece is narrated by the Queen’s cupbearer. Believing himself to be of noble blood, the cupbearer is appalled that the Queen has invited low-lifes to gather in the court. These undesireables are writers, actors, swashbucklers such as Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Francis Bacon and Walter Raleigh. Members of the court are worthies such as the Duchess of Bilgewater and Lady Alice Dilberry.

The cupbearer voices his repulsion: “I being her majesty’s cupbearer, had no choice but to remain and behold rank forgotten, and the high having conversation with the low as though they were on equal terms. And the world will hear of this great scandal.”

The cupbearer in Twain’s “1601” makes everything clear. CAP’s initiating the plan to turn off the water at a shelter on Peachtree Street is not about water. It’s about the Duchess of Bilgewater. It’s cupbearer philosophy. It’s about CAP exclusionism. It’s about the high loathing the low. It’s about plantation thinking assessing the fact that 550 African-American males have a Peachtree Street address. Throw in “homeless males” and appears the perfect storm. This CAP zeal is about the privileged never having to stoop for the unwanted. Could we not safely add to Rachet Rob “I’ll turn your water off” Hunter the title of the Duke of Bilgewater. God rest you Mark Twain. How you would love Team Goliath.